True Master
by OrionTheHunter
Summary: ABANDONED Ash has traveled across the land, searching far and wide . . . Now he is returning, with the most powerful pokemon ever at his side, the one and only Pikachu.
1. Fire Guardian

I do not own Pokemon. I have read very few of the fics, and not played any of the games for more than a few minutes at a friend's house. This idea came to my head anyway.  
  
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Chapter One: Fire  
  
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He moved quickly, deeper and deeper into the cave. The lack of light seemed not to hamper him in the least. Finally, he stepped into the main chamber, and the heat hit him. He looked down, only to see a hundred foot drop into magma. The whole chamber was surrounded by this natural moat of molten rock. He looked across, to the center of the gigantic circular room. On an island barely raised from the center of the magma lake, was the temple.  
  
The temple had stood for thousands of years. Simply built, it was just four slabs of stone placed on end, forming a square, with another laying flat on top. One of the slabs was a few feet short, creating a doorway.  
  
A hundred foot drop to magma, not to mention the several hundred feet horizontally between the tunnel and the island may have stopped most who entered the chamber. And that was if they had avoided or beaten all of the deadly traps in the darkened tunnel. However, it did not even pose a challenge to the man. He was on the island and had entered the temple seemingly instantly.  
  
However hot it was in the main chamber was nothing to the heat inside the temple. The small room was completely bare, save a pedestal in the center. Resting on the pedestal was an orb. The man smiled, placed his hand on the orb, and vanished.  
  
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The man now stood on an island no larger than the one with the temple. It was a circle, about twenty feet in diameter. Except now there was no temple. And the fiery sea surrounding the island has no boundaries.  
  
Suddenly there was a rumble. Out of the magma came a charizard like no one had ever seen before. Charizards were known to be large. But this, this could have squashed the man under its little toe.  
  
The man took a single step toward the mighty pokemon, and then spoke.  
  
"I am Ash, this is my friend, Pikachu," on cue, Pikachu seemed to appear out of nowhere, sitting on his shoulder. "We have come to gain the ability of elemental fire."  
  
The charizard eyed the man for a moment. Then spoke in a booming voice.  
  
"You better prey that you do not lie to me, mortal, as 'ash' is what my fire shall make you if you do. However," at this the charizard's voice seemed to soften a bit, "introducing the small electric mouse as a friend defiantly aid you. By what right do you consider yourself worthy to gain the elemental power of fire?"  
  
Ash looked at Pikachu, then back at the charizard and responded.  
  
"I am a pokemon trainer. I held the title of master, which is considered to be the best on the planet. And I know that does not mean the slightest to you. All I can say of my worthiness is that I hold myself to high standards. I never cheat. I avoid lying, and when I do I regret it not because I fear being discovered, but because I know it is wrong. I treat all of the pokemon that aid me with respect. After the initial euphoria of leaving home to become a trainer wore off and I discovered the true meaning of being a trainer, I never went for quantity of pokemon, but quality of training and developing a relationship with those that I had. Not that I am saying that I never added to the numbers that were traveling with me."  
  
The charizard seemed to think for a moment.  
  
"Is there anything else that proves your worth?"  
  
Ash looked up at the gigantic pokemon and smiled, once again.  
  
"The guardians of the elemental Water, Ice, Wind, Earth, Electricity, Psychic, Morph, Light, and Shadow all considered me worthy off their powers."  
  
At this the guardian charizard looked like he was going to choke.  
  
"All of them? You have already been granted ALL of the other elemental powers? And this Pikachu, he is the pokemon that you have bonded yourself to?"  
  
Ash just nodded in response.  
  
"How do I know that you are telling the truth?"  
  
"Your response to me lying would not be something you just decided to do. I would have been, well, ash, no pun intended, just as soon as I closed my mouth."  
  
"Very well then. So be it."  
  
And with that, Ash was standing back inside the temple, the fire orb absorbed into his body.  
  
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Ok, so tell me, how was it. Should I continue? Please Review! 


	2. Ten Elements, Six Elementals

I still do not own Pokemon.  
  
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Chapter 2: Ten Elements, Six Elementals.  
  
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There were rules that one had to follow if they wished to become elementals.  
  
First was that you had to swear to fight evil. This was a token rule. There was nothing stopping you from becoming evil later, but since the guardians could sense if you were lying, you had to not be evil at the time you were granted elemental power.  
  
Second, you had to have a pokemon partner that you were already bonded to. It didn't have to be a true bond, you and your partner got that after being granted your first elemental power. But you had to have a closer bond then 'I captured you, you serve me'. Any good trainer had a pokemon that they were closely enough bonded to. Also, the pokemon had to match one of the elemental powers: Fire, Water, Ice, Wind, Earth, Electricity, Psychic, Morph, Light, and Shadow. All but a few pokemon had one of these powers.  
  
Third, the first elemental power that you gain must match the element of you partner pokemon. If you have a Pikachu, you must obtain the elemental electricity first. After the first one, there was no necessary order. Few people ever got one elemental, but fewer still got a second. Most chose a second that was the opposite of the first, such as ice or water if the first was fire. Either that or the second elemental that they got was from the first temple that they could find after receiving their first elemental.  
  
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If one were to receive an elemental power, they were then called an elemental. The first elemental power did three things.  
  
First, it created a true link between you and your partner pokemon. The elemental understood what the pokemon was saying, it understood you, and you could communicate telepathically.  
  
Second, your partner pokemon learned new moves. Depending on the element, the pokemon learned anywhere between three and ten moves that no other pokemon, who wasn't paired with an elemental, knew.  
  
Third, the elemental, the human part of the elemental and pokemon pair, gained power over the element. A new electric elemental could control lightning during a thunderstorm. A well-trained electric elemental, especially if he was also water and or wind elemental, could create the thunderstorm.  
  
The second elemental power received, and those after, also gave new attacks to the pokemon and control over the element to the elemental. A squirtle that was partnered with a water and fire elemental could do attacks that were water or fire related. With some training, they could combine element attacks. For example, fire and shadow combined to make a very strong attack called 'shadow flare.' Or more than two could be combined. An attack that combined Ice, Psychic, and Morph, called 'petrify drain' rendered its target a petrified version of its un-evolved self. Even if the target was able to brake of it's petrified state, it would be at a very low power until the next time it was given a pokemon potion.  
  
There could only two elementals of the same element at one time, as there were only two fire temples, to ice temples, etc.  
  
There was one other thing to being an elemental. If you died, one of two things happened. One, your powers went loose into the world. That would be really bad. The other is that you gave you powers up. In that case, you either chose to let them return to the temples that you got the powers from, or you passed them on to someone you felt was worthy.  
  
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Ash walked through the door with a smile on his face. He seemed to be doing that a lot recently, smiling. The other five who were already in the house were always happy when he smiled. They remembered when they first came together, the six of them. He was always frowning. He didn't know that they knew, but he cried himself to sleep almost every night at the beginning.  
  
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They each were elementals when they first met each other.  
  
Jen was ice, paired with a frosty named Chloe.  
  
Mark was fire, paired with a charmander named Chris.  
  
Sora was water, paired with a goldie named Silver.  
  
Joe was earth, paired with a grant named Obsidian, Obi for short.  
  
Hikari was wind, paired with a hawkin named Rush.  
  
Ash was electricity, paired with Pikachu, a pikachu.  
  
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That had been nearly six years ago. It was Ash that had motivated them to find the other temples, and to gain more powers. It was ash that conceded the first shadow temple to Hikari, despite his desire to gain that element. Before they knew it they each had two. Jen gained psychic, Mark gained Light, Sora gained electricity, Joe gained morph, and Hikari gained shadow.  
  
They decided that Ash, as their leader, deserved the power from any other temple that they could find. When they made him swear that he would accept those powers, none of them knew that they would find all of the remaining nine.  
  
Sure, they were afraid of his power. But they trusted him, and knew that they need not be afraid of him using the power unwisely.  
  
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"So, love, you got it?" Hikari, Kari for shot, asked her boyfriend after he sat down at the kitchen table.  
  
"What do you think?"  
  
"I think that I need to ask you a question?"  
  
"And that is?"  
  
"What does the man that has done the impossible do next?"  
  
"I'm going to see mother. It's been almost eight years."  
  
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So, what do you think? Tell me. Please Review. 


	3. Painful Memories

It has come to my attention that I need a proofreader. Would anyone like to volunteer?  
  
Also, I have seen many episodes of the pokemon cartoon, but not in some time. So I have to apologize, I do not know the names of the pokemon. Therefore, I will be making up my own.  
  
The only new pokemon that I am explaining outside of the story are those from the elementals. One is a charmander, and hopefully we all know pikachu.  
  
Frosty:  
  
Ice type pokemon. Looks like a traditional snowman. (Three balls of snow stacked on each other.) It is not made of snow, but is covered in fur. Can compress into a single ball for rolling attacks and traveling.  
  
Goldie:  
  
Dolphin like pokemon. Most have smooth gold skin. (Sora's has silver streaks, hence the name silver.) Uses ramming, water, and sonic attacks.  
  
Grant:  
  
Looks like a large chimpanzee, made entirely out of stone. Take the color of the type of rock where they evolved into grant. (Joe's is obsidian black, hence the name Obsidian.) Tackle, punch, and quake attacks.  
  
Hawkin:  
  
Hawk-like pokemon. Slightly larger than a phigeoto [spelling anyone?]. Uses wind attacks.  
  
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Also, this will not be an AAML fic. There WAS AAML, but I'll get into that in this chapter.  
  
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On to the fic, and no, I do not own Pokemon.  
  
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Chapter Three: Painful Memories  
  
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Ash was not smiling as he walked down the street of Pallet Town. It had been eight years since he had been home. Eight years since he had seen his mother.  
  
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He was supposed to be on a business trip. Misty thought that he was. He had canceled. He just couldn't miss his girl friend's birthday. Especially with the birthday present that he had for her.  
  
He had spent months tracking it down, and months restoring it whenever he could stop in at his mother's house. He was keeping it there so Misty wouldn't find it. It was a bike. But not just any bike, it was the same bike he had barrowed from Misty when he first meet her. Well, not the exact same one, but it was the same brand and model. Its production number was only six off. The paint was the same, and he had even added the basket.  
  
The other part of his present had taken him almost as long. On one of his quests, he had found this cave full of natural gems. It took him nearly a year to find it again. He spent three days wandering around the inside of it for just the perfect gemstones. He eventually left with a large, about the size of his pointer finger, water diamond, a very rare type. He also had a ruby and several sapphires. He designed the ring himself, it was a starme and a staru together, made out of the water diamond, with sapphire at the points and ruby in their centers. He knew that there would be a large amount of the gems left, and he allowed the ring maker to keep them.  
  
And so, it was with a very special engagement ring and bike that he wished his mother goodbye and headed for the home he shared with Misty. He arrived the next day, on her birthday. Two days before he was supposed to be returning from the business trip he canceled.  
  
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Misty never knew that he returned. She was too preoccupied with whoever it was that was sharing her bed. She was cheating on him, and he stuck around long enough to know that it wasn't a one-time mistake.  
  
He didn't remember what he did with the bike. He probably left it in the forest, somewhere where Misty would never have found it, but not so far from his so called home that he had to keep it with him for long.  
  
As for the ring, pawned it in some town not long after.  
  
Even Pikachu, who understood emotions, but not human actions or relationships, knew that Misty was doing something wrong. He was even angrier than Ash was. She had hurt his trainer. She had to pay.  
  
He spent the next two years wandering, and accidentally stumbled on a lightning temple, and gained the power of elemental lightning. Shortly thereafter, he met up with the others.  
  
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"We are right here Ash." Kari said, as Ash was about to knock on his mother's door.  
  
Knock  
  
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"Oh, who could that be?" Ash heard his mother ask.  
  
Ash was really nervous. His mother hadn't seen him since the day he had left her house with the gifts for Misty's birthday. For that mater, almost no one had. Most of the planet thought that he had died. Now his mother would be upset, not only because he hadn't come to see her before now, but because he would have to tell her what happened so she wouldn't call Misty immediately.  
  
Kari knew all the details, but the others only knew that someone had broken his heart.  
  
Now, he would also have to explain his new friends. Not that he would talk about their powers, but still it was some story.  
  
"ASH!" His mother screamed as she opened the door, recognized him, and launched herself to hug him, seemingly in all one move.  
  
"Mom." Ash responded quietly, returning the embrace.  
  
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Sorry about the lateness and shortness of this chapter. More soon. Oh, and here is a little preview of things to come.  
  
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Ash down at the valley below his mountain perch. Thousands of pokemon were waiting below. Each of them were loyal to him, to his cause.  
  
The war had lasted long enough. The darkness had won too many battles. Everyone was counting on him winning today. The fate of the universe depended on him winning today.  
  
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This is not an exact scene from later, this is just to give you an idea of what I have in mind.  
  
Please review. 


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